Salem Witch Trial Essay

Words: 678
Pages: 3

The video, Inside the Salem Witch Trials: Witch Hunt, was intriguing. This documentary explained the many different aspects of what triggered the witch hunt and trials. The people of Salem were part of the strict puritan religion. They had a small world mentality, and wanted to purge the world of anything non puritan. In October 1692 these people believed witches were attacking the people of Salem. This caused hysteria to break out. The Salem community accused anyone who did anything wrong against them of witchcraft. If a person was accused of witchcraft the person was examined by the magistrates, put on trial by the judges, and if convicted the person was executed usually by hanging. The Salem witch trials brought out the worse in people, …show more content…
A was sent to doctor to examine them. The doctor could not diagnosis their aliment, so instead he stated that it was witchcraft. When he asked the girls who bewitched them, they accused Tituba, the house slave. Tituba was looked down on because of her slave background. Slaves were already treated horribly, so she was afraid of trying to prove her innocence. Tituba could not handle the pressure of being examined by the magistrates, and out of fear falsely admitted that she was a witch and accused others of being witches as well. The two girls did not come forward with the truth when people started to be executed because they feared being executed as well. This caused a domino effect. Over 100 people were accused of being witches and 20 were executed. As the witch hunts and trials came to a conclusion, many of the accusers admitted they were not telling the truth. The people who were not executed were freed from jail. The video presented that the puritan religion was the only religion affected by this crazed era. Paganism played a major part of this era as well. The puritans accused the witches of worshiping Satan and doing black magic, when really, pagan witches do not believe in Satan nor do they practice anything evil. True pagans and witches are polytheistic. They believe in the goddess and god, as well as many other gods, and deities. This is a peaceful